Nothing will do for me...

LFC needs a bit of bite in defence!

I was sitting in the airport last night and thinking about a chat I had earlier in the day with my colleague, a fellow Liverpool supporter. "I'm hoping for a good win against the Villans this weekend, mate...!" I said with the confidence of a man who's team is in the hunt at the top of the league. "Well..." He replies with caution, "There are no easy games these days my friend, and everybody can beat everybody...".

Now as cliche'd as that may sound, the lad has a point and it got me thinking. Aston Villa have only won one of their last five matches, and they've shipped six goals in that time scoring only three. Liverpool on the other hand have scored 11 in as many matches. However, it's at the other end wherein lies the problem. Liverpool have actually shipped seven goals during that time. 

My colleague went on... "Mignolet's having a mare at the moment too". But, this is something I don't entirely agree with. The Red's defensive back four have been, frankly hopeless this season in my opinion. The column marked 'A' in the table shows Brendan Rodger's men have conceded more goals than any other team in the top ten, with the exception of Hull which, with all due respect, is nothing whatsoever to be happy about. 

Thus for me, it's not actually just down to Mignolet. More is the case that his defence is terribly wobbly and offers him and the goal very little protection if any at all on occasion. I can't pin it down to any particular player either. All of them have been poor this season. Martin Skrtel seems to want to change shirts with the opposition at every set piece - regardless of which end of the pitch - and Mamadou Sakho, although accurate in his passing, has about much positional sense as the spinning kid in a game of Blind Man's Bluff. Not to mention Daniel Agger's infatuation with the treatment table.

Rodgers is due to meet the club's owner John W. Henry and Chairman Tom Werner this weekend and despite all the talk of signing Pedro Rodriguez and Mohamed Salah et al, the acquisition of one or two solid defenders has to be penciled into the agenda as the main topic. At the moment, Liverpool cannot be considered serious title contenders until the leaky defence is shored up. This is without question. An integral part of any successful team is a watertight defence and LFC does not have that at this time. 

So as the title of this says, nothing will do for me. Nothing as in come this evening, I want to see a big fat zero for the away team's goal count. It's about time we saw the defence stand up, be counted and become an equal unit to the midfield and attack in terms of reliability and being more clinical. Nothing more, nothing less. And on the subject of nothing, nothing but a win will suffice.

Follow me on Twitter @Mrbengreen

To jinx or not to jinx

Let's hope you're laughing come May!

Contrary to what Billy Shakespeare wrote, this is actually the question. You see, no sooner had I revealed my superstitious fear of lauding Liverpool's start to the season, the wheels appeared to fall off the bandwagon of optimism. Yes, it was Arsenal and yes, they're top of the league and looking good value for it, but I can't bring myself to say that they're unbeatable In all fairness, games between these two are always impossible to call. Perhaps I just chose the wrong moment!

So, that said, I'm not overly disappointed with the result. I just see it as a reminder that there is still work for Brendan Rodgers and the whole team to do. I think the biggest undoing was playing three at the back. It seems to have worked well thus far this season, but against a top team I don't believe the manager should stray too far from the tried and trusted. Rodger's reasoning for playing this 3-5-2 is to accommodate both Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in attack. For me, that's a feeble excuse and not one I expect to hear from someone who, not so long ago, was claiming the players "Will play where they're told to".

The point I'm making is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'd like to see Rodgers be bold enough to play one of them in a wider position, the other in the middle and simply have them swapping positions now and again. Surely that's got to pull the opposition defences all over the place trying to manage the two of them. When all is said and done though, the players are the ones who should stand up for the occasion and be counted and I don't think that happened until it was too late. Suarez reverted to his old self and missed a glorious chance to play Sturridge in for a near dead cert finish in the closing stages. Instead going it alone and pushing it wide. That has to stop. Aaron Ramsey's finish is definitely worth a mention.

A look at the next few fixtures provides, what I would say, is a chance for Liverpool to consolidate their place as a front runner this season. Fulham and Norwich at home either side of away fixtures at Everton and Hull respectively have got to be games that Liverpool should be looking to pick up maximum points. With the exception of the derby - which is always a bit of a lottery - you've got to fancy the Reds to do the business going into the Christmas shakeup. The festive season brings away games at Tottenham, Man City and Chelsea and the team needs the confidence going into that period. Ahead of that, a testing encounter at Upton Park to visit West Ham will also test LFC's "top-four" credentials.

I'm a believer that the season can be won and lost over Christmas so this is a time I'm really looking forward to. Will Rodgers' men build on what can only be described as surprisingly good start to the season? Or will they peter out like Newcastle, West Brom, or (more likely than not) Southampton have done in recent times? I don't do predictions but I'd suggest a two-goal margin in Liverpool's favour on Saturday against Fulham.

Where the league is concerned, time of course, will tell but - optimistically, I believe the top four is in reach and should be expected by all Liverpool fans. Realistically, I'd be happy with fifth because it means qualification for European competition and still represents an improvement on the previous season's effort. Improvement is all Liverpool fans can ask for given the shambles that the club became under Tom Hicks and George Gillet. Two that definitely weren't the best that Liverpool could get.

Follow me on Twitter @Mrbengreen